Volunteers aim to make robotics accessible to all students
GUELPH – Local robotics teams are growing in popularity, fueling students’ passions and building foundations for future tech careers.
Royal City Community Robotics (RCCR) is a non-profit with volunteers who coach six youth robotics teams in Guelph.
Teams are administered by the Upper Grand, Wellington Catholic and MonAvenir Catholic school boards
There are two high school teams and four elementary teams across both boards, with about 100 students between the teams, RCCR president Henry Dossett said.
He’s a mentor for all the teams, and said the club is “really trying to create a community.”
The RCCR eventually wants robotics teams in each Guelph elementary school.
It costs about $1,000 for a kit and registration to start an elementary Lego-robotics club, and Dossett said teachers, parents or students interested in launching a club can email info@guelphrobics for support.
Grade 10 Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) student Walker Coe is a member of Goose Goose Duck, a new team that formed last fall.
He took a break from his robotics work at College Heights Secondary School one Friday evening to tell the Advertiser what the group means to him.
“It’s an amazing team – I really love it, and feel at home with what I’m doing.”
Coe said he’s always had a passion for robotics, so was immediately excited to join Goose Goose Duck.
He has a manufacturing role on the team, meaning he uses machinery to build the robots, mostly of aluminum.
It’s very fragile and easy to break, Coe said, so students have to be precise in their measurements. But aluminum is an ideal material because it’s light, affordable and easy to work with.
Using the machinery is Coe’s favourite part of his work with the club, especially drilling holes with the mill.
He’d like to use the skills he’s developing in a future career – possibly something where he can work with both hardware and software.
He said if other students are considering joining the team he’s confident they’ll find a role aligning with their interests and skills – be it coding, design, manufacturing or media.
Elora resident and Grade 12 student Spencer Anderson said when a CWDHS teacher noticed his passion for robotics, she recommended he join the Goose Goose Duck team.
He did so right away, and said it’s been a great experience.
Anderson’s role with the club is “all over the place,” he said, including working on computer-aided design and taking promotional photos.
“It’s a lot more complex than I thought at first,” he said, with a significant amount of planning to design and build the robots.
The students participated in a competition in the fall to build their skills – Lord of Robots’ Cubic Chaos, where they designed a small robot that could flip a cube.
Now they’ve moved on to a far more complicated bot for the First Robotics Competition – this one can pick up balls and toss them into a net, as well as climb a ladder.
They’ve created a prototype and are working on designing and building a more advanced version.
As a rookie team, Anderson said they aren’t trying to win, but to “learn a lot and build a robot that can accomplish some cool feats.”
Zoey Vandermeer and Martin Cleaver are volunteer coaches with Goose Goose Duck.
Vandermeer participated in a robotics club throughout high school and said it made a world of difference in her life. She’s now studying software engineering at the University of Guelph.
She’s been passionate about coding since elementary school, but said being the robotics team during high school multiplied that passion 10-fold.
When she heard Goose Goose Duck was looking for a software mentor she was “super excited” to help out.
The mentors have been amazed by the popularity of the Goose Goose Duck team – they were expecting between eight and 10 students but now there are dozens involved.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “I love this program.”
Cleaver, one of the volunteer coaches with Goose Goose Duck, whose 17-year-old son is now on the team, said an early search for a team, before RCCR formed, brought disappointment with only Guelph-based “Beaverworx” available.
That club formed in 2008 at Guelph’s Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School. Without other options, Cleaver reached out and found his son was welcome to join. Cleaver was impressed with the club’s equipment and the attention given to students.
Many of the team members go on to become mentors once they graduate, “creating an ecosystem reinforcing what it is to be an engineer,” Cleaver said.
“Guelph needs to modernize its industry, and youngsters have fresh perspectives, time and energy to embrace a fresh outlook,” he said.
Joining a robotics team can help students transition smoothly from playing with Legos for fun to developing technical skills helping to propel them to a successful future, he said.
“Employees can’t get enough of students with advanced skilled trades.”
More information about RCCR is also available at guelphrobotics.ca.
Anyone interested in joining or sponsoring a robotics team can email info@guelphrobotics.ca.
